How to Think About Supplements

Before you even start to supplement, consider this:

Before we think about supplements, it’s important to acknowledge something that often gets skipped.

Supplements cannot compensate for chronic issues in diet, lifestyle, or environment.

They can support the body, but they can’t override persistent stressors.

Areas that matter most include:

Sleep quality and timing
Food choices and consistency
Regular movement
Stress load and recovery
Light exposure and daily rhythms
Mold, toxins and environmental stresses

When these are significantly out of balance, adding more supplements usually leads to:

diminishing returns
temporary effects
or a sense of “nothing really working”

This doesn’t mean everything has to be perfect before supplements are useful.
It does mean that supplements work best when these foundations are at least reasonably supported.

Think of supplementation as something that layers onto a functioning system, not something that fixes one that’s under constant strain.

Foundational, Targeted & Advanced

One of the most common patterns we see is people taking more supplements over time, spending more money, yet feeling no better — and sometimes worse.

The issue is rarely that supplements “don’t work”.
More often, it’s that they’re being added at the wrong level.

At Fairfield Nutrition, we think about supplementation as a hierarchy, not a checklist.
Most people benefit from starting lower than they expect (Foundational or Targeted), and moving up (including Targeted or Advanced) only when there’s a clear reason to do so.

It’s vital to think about whether a supplement is right for you, at this time, to achieve your goals.

Rather than asking ‘is this a good supplement?’, or following the hype.

Stephen Ward (Clinical director, Fairfield Nutrition)

Foundational supplements

Supporting the basics that everything else depends on

Foundational supplements are designed to support core nutritional needs and physiological processes that apply to most people.

They don’t target a specific condition or symptom. Instead, they help ensure that the body has what it needs to function reliably in the background.

Examples of foundational support include:

Minerals and nutrients that are commonly low or poorly absorbed
Broad nutritional support for energy production, nervous system function, or digestion
Simple formulations intended for regular, ongoing use

Foundational supplements are often the least exciting — and the most important.

If foundations are weak or inconsistent, adding more specialised products on top rarely produces lasting results.

Most people do best when foundations are in place before anything more targeted is added.

Examples include Magnesium, Omega-3 (EPA/DHA) ,Vitamin D3 with K2, Zinc , B vitamin complex, Pre and Probiotics, Digestive Enzymes.

Targeted supplements

Used deliberately to address a specific pattern or need

Targeted supplements are designed to support a particular system, function, or goal.

They make the most sense when there is:

a clearly identified issue
a specific reason for choosing that product
an understanding of what role it’s meant to play

Examples might include:

Digestive support chosen for a known pattern
Nutrients used to support a particular stage of life or stress load
Shorter-term support layered on top of foundations

Targeted supplements work best when they are:

chosen intentionally
reviewed periodically
not treated as permanent “add-ons” by default

Adding multiple targeted products without a clear rationale often leads to confusion rather than clarity.

Advanced supplements

More specialised, not “better”

Used once foundations are in place and there are no major imbalances to address

Advanced supplements are often misunderstood.

They’re not necessarily “stronger”, more aggressive, or more medical.
In many cases, they’re used after the body is functioning relatively well — not when something is clearly wrong.

This category is best thought of as optimisation-focused, rather than corrective.

Advanced supplements are typically used when:

core nutrition is adequate
lifestyle and recovery are reasonably stable
there are no obvious deficiencies or unresolved health issues
the goal is to refine, maintain, or optimise how you feel

Examples of optimisation goals might include:

supporting healthy ageing or longevity markers
improving resilience, recovery, or cognitive performance
fine-tuning energy, sleep quality, or exercise response

In this context, advanced supplements are additive rather than compensatory.

They tend to work best when:

used selectively
layered on top of a stable baseline
reviewed periodically rather than taken indefinitely by default

When advanced supplements don’t make sense

Advanced supplements are often disappointing when:

foundational needs haven’t been addressed
targeted support is still clearly required
lifestyle stressors are dominating physiology

In these situations, optimisation tends to be fragile or short-lived, because the system underneath isn’t ready to be optimised.

In other words, optimisation works best when there’s something stable to optimise.

A common mistake we see

A very common pattern looks like this:

Symptoms → add a targeted supplement
Partial relief → add another
Plateau → add something “stronger”

Over time, this often results in:

long supplement lists
higher monthly spend
less confidence about what’s actually helping

The goal isn’t to keep climbing the ladder.
The goal is to use the lowest level that meaningfully supports you, and only move up when there’s a clear reason.

How this framework is meant to be used

This framework isn’t about restriction or minimalism for its own sake.

It’s about:

relevance over volume
clarity over accumulation
making supplements work with your body, not around it

When browsing products on our site, the Foundational, Targeted, and Advanced labels are there to help you pause and ask:

Is this a base I’m missing?
Is this addressing something specific I’ve identified?
Or am I adding complexity without a clear reason?

If you’re ever unsure, it’s usually worth stepping down a level — not up.